The Week of January 30 in Review Preview

This week will just be in two parts. Part 1 is what I call the non-standard stuff. Some of the books I'm remarking on are:

Facing Shadows

Okay, I was going to save this for another day, but I don't see Lee's cover post this morning and this IS a cover post too AND close enough to Groundhog's Day to use it.  If you're Bill Murry you might still be reliving it.  So enjoy!

You may not realize it, because Hallmark hasn't created cards for it yet, but today is a very special holiday.  It's Groundhog's Day!!!  The most celebrated day in February, next to that one with hearts and flowers.  When I was single, Valentines Day was always a drag, but I did send out once a 12th Day of Groundhog letter to someone special (two plus twelve equals fourteen, you know).  It must have made a lasting impression, because she later married me.  Anyway, as is our custom around here to rest on holidays (and put together really quick posts), you get to be treated to an extra dose of Comic Covers (borrowing from Lee's shtick)!  The theme for today is of course SHADOWS!!!  Unlike Lee, I'm not going to provide a bunch of cool research like who drew them.  I may not even provide commentary, because I'm writing this on Sunday (Jan 27) and I'm hoping to take my nap soon.

Superior Spider-Man #002 – A Review

It’s Groundhog’s Day and I had a special Covers post all queued up for you today to celebrate the holiday and to mark the beginning of my fourth year with Comics And.  Well, you may see it next week or next year, but I could not let a week go by without talking about this book.  It was AWESOME and it’s bound to cause a number of people (Shawn) some indigestion as they eat their unkind words toward the Superior Spider-Man storyline.  As always, there will be SPOILERS!

Superior Spider-Man #002

Writer:  Dan Slott

Artist:   Ryan Stegman

Color Art: Edgar Delgado

Letterer: VC’s Chris Eliopoulos

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99 (including “FREE” digital copy)

Mud Man Vol 1

Simplicity.  That's what I think when I see Paul Grist's work.  This latest book from him is exemplar, right from the lack of subtitle to this collection of the first 5 issues of the book.

Then there's the line work.  Evocative but far from heavy on detail, well removed from, say, George Perez.  The backgrounds and the main characters are clear but not heavy on lines.  Concurrently, those lines that are there are fairly heavy.  Not Frank Miller, but heavy.  I enjoy that it's an ease to follow for someone like me who reads the words first and checks the pictures second, with a primary eye to move on the next batch of words rather than spending a lot of time trying to parse out what's in the pictures.  It's the kind of story movement I like to see in comics art.

And the story is well and truly off to a strong start.  I don't know where Grist is going in the long run but in five issues he's set up a lot of depth.  There's the obvious Spider-man similarity in our 15 year old hero, Owen Craig, who suddenly comes into a super power with little inkling of how to use it effectively and for what purpose beyond the generic wanting to be a superhero.  He's also subject to harrassment from a bully at school, much like Peter Parker's early relationship with Flash Thompson.  Of course, Grist makes direct reference to that in the dialog between Owen and his best friend, Jack Newton, both of whom are comics fans and know the outlines of what's happening to Owen.

There's much more with the mysterious cast of foes or possible foes.  From the mysterious house, complete with attic Batcave, to phantasmic "adviser" who may by a mass killer, Mud Man has a lot set for a long run of stories.

Nonetheless, Grist doesn't leave anything in limbo.  These future elements are just elements.  The individual stories of how he wakes up with his powers, which seem to be largely that his body is now mud in human form which can't be killed by bullets or amputations, and a resucue of his police detective father from humorous though lethal robbers on the lam, are just the start.  A mystery figure who knows a lot more about him and his powers offers to train him but is clearly cavalier, at a minimum, about the deaths of bystanders, and manipulates an old man with hydro-control powers who was likely a supervillain a long time ago.  Of course, Owen ends up calling the mystery man for help after being manipulated into a realization that he has a lot to learn.

On the plus side for Owen, he does meet a new girl at his school who he's been mooning over, and his bully becomes an ally after he saves the bully's life.  As well, his friend Jack is an enthusiastic sidekick of sorts, albeit without powers beyond using spray paint to blind a malicious flying ball.

I'm looking forward to the next volume when it's collected.  In the meantime I'll have to get me some additional volumes of Jack Staff and try out Grist's Kane books.

Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser

Sometimes there are characters you've heard about for quite awhile, and you might have some inkling of what their story is, but you haven't actually read them.  Well, for me there's a lot of that in the reading world.  Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are among them.  Their brief appearance and ignominious demise, or at least representations of them, in Fables had been my only experience of the characters.  Appetizers for The Dark Man didn't give me much about them.

I came across Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Howard Chaykin, Mike Mignola and Al Willaimson and figured I couldn't pass up the opportunity to learns some of Leiber's highly regarded stories, especially with pencils by Mignola and inks by Williamson.  Chaykin's been a bit more hit and miss for me on his original material, but with such well known source material I figured he wouldn't stray far.

He didn't.

These are some great stories.  I can see why they've been so influential with subsequent creators like Chaykin and Mignola.  Leiber has a large world that he's created that has a fully fleshed cast, not just it's titular heroes.  Sword and sorcery owes a lot to Leiber, as well as contemporaries Robert Howard and Michael Moorcock.  There are many similarities among the works of the three men, of course, but each had his own style.

This collection of books published by Dark Horse in 2007 has all 4 of the original miniseries books published in 1991.  Opening with the tragic loss of each man's true love soon after their first meeting, running through their self imposed excile from the city of Lankhmar, and into their later years of separation and divergent life courses, the book lays out a sampler course of the lives of our flawed but essentially hopeful heroes.  It can get a bit disconcerting because there are time breaks between segments, but if you remember Leiber told a lot more stories that aren't presented here, it's much more enjoyable.  Chaykin does fill in the blanks ably with contextual story so that it's not hard to figure out the new point in the characters' lives even without the intervening stories.  Not like the old school text boxes in super hero books but with good story.

Of course, one of the best things about this book is that it's all Mignola art.  At this stage I don't see many things published with Mignola on art.  Lots of story, but not much art.  Hellboy and it's companion series feature artists who hew closely to Mignola's style, but they're not Mignola.

As a bonus, there are 16 pages of Fritz Leiber original writing from Swords and Deviltry at the back of the collection.  It's presented as a preview of Book One of a Dark Horse reproduction of Leiber's original works, but it's a stand alone story in itself called The Snow Women.  It present a differnent first meeting than we see in Ill Met in Lankhmar, but maybe that's because they don't recall the meeting of The Snow Women.  I'd like to read a lot more Leiber to find out, though.

The Gerry Conway Interview Kickstarter

Roger Priebe contacted us regarding a Kickstarter project which you can see by clicking this link. Before we could get the post up and running he already reached his goal, but the great thing with these projects are you can still participate and get a copy of the over 3 hour interview with someone who was heavily involved in writing and editing (even editor in chief at Marvel) for awhile. There are only a few days left so get over there and jump in. Also check out the Kickstarter site for a over 8 minute clip of the interview.

For fun we are Roger to answer a few brief questions.

Gerry Conway

Jim: A Gerry Conway interview sounds interesting. Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and the project?

Roger: My name is Roger Priebe, and I have been a comic book fan for over 25 years now.  Even more than that, I love the history behind the comic books. I soak up magazines like “Alter Ego” and “Back Issue” like sponges. I can never get enough of the stories behind the comics. And as an independent filmmaker from Cleveland Ohio, I decided to put my two loves together. Why not film a interview of one these comic book legends for a DVD? I mean, just imagine if we had this kind of interview with people like Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster? People like that and those story’s are now gone forever. So I decided something needed to be done!

I’ve had this idea for this style of interview and it was a matter of finding the right person for the first one. And luckily Gerry understood perfectly what this series of interview dvd’s could be. And he gave one of the greatest interviews I have ever seen. Gerry is very open, entertaining, and informative about not only his entire career but the comic book industry in general.

The Week of January 23 in Review Part 9 of 9 – Mind Mgmt #7

Mind Mgmt #7 by Matt Kindt is another issue in what has to be one of my favorite series right now. Even better it is a reader friendly jump on point with a brief summary of what has come before that gives a reader all they need to know to jump in.

The short story is Mind Mgmt is a secret organization that has agents with various mind control type powers. From influencing people with ads, influencing decisions, making people fall in love and letters that can kill you to healing almost any injury to yourself. The focus of the story is Meru. She is the young girl who survived Harry Lyme’s (one of the most powerful agents) meltdown when he pushed a city to destroy itself. Mind Mgmt itself was disbanded and now it appears the organization is trying to reform. Meru is a target and Harry Lyme is out to try and rescue her.